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Wednesday, May 18, 2011

UPDATE: Arpaio Campaign Confirms Over $3 Million In Campaign Account, More Than $5 Million Raised, and Still Flirting With Senate Run

It is confirmed. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has crossed $5 Million and $3 Million milestones even before he has committed to running for re-election as Sheriff.

Since his last campaign finance report only covered the period through Nov. 22, 2010, and his next one will not be filed for many more months - due to a now-quaint quirk in the reporting system that did not anticipate permanent campaigns - our report could only speculate that Arpaio had now crossed the thresholds since late November, based upon his past performance and conservative guesstimates.

Re-Elect Arpaio Campaign Manager Chad Willems confirmed to Arizona's Politics yesterday (via e-mail) that the campaign has indeed raised more than $5 Million in small (less than $430) individual contributions, and that the campaign coffers contain more than $3 Million. (See, Tuesday's post for overview of what the $2 Million was spent on.)

By comparison, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-CD6) had about $630,000 in the bank after his (easy) House race last November, and raised slightly more than $1 Million ($1,031,172.37) in the six weeks after he announced that he would try to replace Jon Kyl in the U.S. Senate. His cash on hand is (as of March 31, 2011) a comparatively paltry $1.5 Million ($1,570,977.90).

The comparison is somewhat relevant because Willems stated yesterday that Arpaio has not yet made a final decision on whether or not to run for the opening Senate seat. Conceivably, he could switch gears from his just announced formal re-election kick-off. (Not sure whether state and/or federal campaign finance laws would permit the re-purposing.)

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